Science

April 22, 2010 is the 40th annual Earth Day celebration. Whether you teach about global warming and climate change or are just looking for a way to commemorate this anniversary with your students or children, here are 10 starting points, which we’ll update as more Times resources become available.

Reflect on the Past – What do you know about Earth Day? Test your knowledge with our Student Crossword, or quiz others by using the events in a new New York Times interactive timeline that details 70 years of environmental milestones, from protecting the Bald Eagle through the Clean Air Act, Chernobyl, Exxon Valdez, the Kyoto Protocol and the Copenhagen Climate Talks. Teachers, you might list the events on the board and have your students try to put them in chronological order first, then show them the graphic.

Hold a Debate – Read an in-depth Times Magazine or other Times article on a “green” issue, such as Nobel Prize-winning economist and Times columnist Paul Krugman’s piece “Building a Green Economy” or Jon Gertner’s “Why Isn’t the Brain Green?”. Then hold a classroom debate on the issues in the article. For example, readers of Krugman’s piece might debate whether addressing climate change is good or bad for the economy. To prepare, use one of our graphic organizers to promote understanding and analysis.

Plant a Tree – Sometimes a simple idea is best. Reflect on the beauty, classification and value of trees with Olivia Judson’s Opinionator blog post “Tree-mendous” and our related lesson plan. Then plant a tree to commemorate Earth Day and/or Arbor Day.

Update | April, 2011: A reader wrote to us with an Arbor-Day-themed lesson idea about “Trees and Transcendentalists,” that incorporates a fun Times video as well as poetry and writing from Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Ray Bradbury to support student understanding of nature.

Look to Literature – Watch the documentary “Walden: The Ballad of Thoreau,” aired on public television on Earth Day 2009 in cooperation with the Earth Day Network. Then use our lesson plan on the role of place in writers’ lives to further explore how living at Walden Pond affected Thoreau’s ideas and writing. You might also assign other related nonfiction works, such as Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” or Elizabeth Kolbert’s “Field Notes From a Catastrophe,” and/or poems about experience in the nature. As an alternative, students might consider how they interact with the environment and with nature in their daily lives and think about how an experience like Thoreau’s might affect them.

Examine Energy and Pollution – The Energy & Environment page of the Business section collects Times coverage on various types of energy and related environmental issues, and more coverage is provided by the Green Inc. blog. For example, the award-winning series Toxic Waters examines the role some businesses and utilities have played in contributing to pollution. And there’s a wealth of coverage on such topics as oil, coal and biofuels. Choose one topic and drill down; student groups might do research on various topics and then hold a class symposium on energy issues and the environment. For example, you might find out which countries consume and produce the most oil around the world and draw comparisons between producers and consumers.

Update: The April 22, 2010 “Business of Green” special section explores nuclear power, asking “Is this the long-awaited renaissance of the nuclear construction business, after years of being moribund?”

Bullies to Buddies offers free manuals for teachers, students and parents teaches them how to stop the bully-victim cycle by empowering the victim to stop being a victim without anyone’s help and without getting anyone in trouble. You can find it here: http://www.bullies2buddies.com/Resources/Download-Free-Manuals

I believe the focus on food sould be stressed. According to FAO, “the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent – than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation.”

The “Print Grows Trees” campaign recently launched by the Printing & Graphics Association MidAtlantic challenges the widely held belief that by using less paper trees will be saved, and makes the case that demand for responsibly sourced print media actually helps to grow trees and keep our forests from being sold for development.

Here are the best. The ecology is also the nerves and health of its citizens. Ban all leafblowers and chainsaws. Ban honking in city streets. Also: stop construction from cementing over the planet. Start a world population growth control programme — and enforce it. Ban oestrogen-pumped chickens. Most important of all, let’s get the media behind these points instead of boring us with candy pills about the ecology. Let’s get serious.

# 1 way to go green and mark Earth Day is to eat less meat. The most dramatic impact you can make is to do everything you can to stop factory farming — choose the scope of your political focus — and of course to eat as little meat as possible. If you don’t have it in you to go veg, then try to come as close to it as you can, and above all stop buying meat at home or out (ask where the meat comes form) produced in the single greatest threat to global well being, by any measure: intensive livestock farms.

As I already wrote to another article I read today:
A often recommended approach to prevent environmental destruction is returning to bartering. Seems to become very common again in these days since online platforms like Barterquest.com emerged. Of course, instead of throwing things away I don’t need anymore it is possible to exchange them with something else and useful. It’s said to be green. Although there is a measurable environmental damage through the shipment of the exchanged items, we also have this (sometimes in a much worse intensity) when buying and shipping new products. Or am I completely wrong in that case?
BTW. It also might help in economical difficult times to save cash.

I think it is reasonable to discuss these opportunities much more in public.

We “celebrate” Earth Day everyday! My gifted elementary classes recycle for the entire school at Allatoona Elementary. We’ve recycled over 20,000 pounds this school year, we clean the school grounds on a regular basis and we always use both sides of our paper. Sometimes, we even take other classes paper from their recycle bin and use the back! One of my third graders said, “Mrs. Ferrero, when I see people put paper, cans, bottles, or plastic in the regular garbage can instead of in the recycle can, I get sick to my sotmach.” I believe most kids want to save the Earth!

Already today youth around the world have pledged to reduce over 200 tonnes of carbon dioxiode through the Zero Footprint International Youth Calculator. http://bit.ly/doq5CK They can compare their footprints with other countries and schools.

Yes, children are the last great hope. The green schools movement is the most exiting development in Earth 2.0. The Growing Greener Schools broadcast on PBS depicts this well…as does the launch of GGSMagazine.org

I agree — children are the hope because our generation has failed them. But it’s not too late — lots of great practical advice for kids, parents, teachers, and community leaders at http://www.ggsmagazine.org

Tonight the topics of discussion on the PBS show Basic Black are the impact of bullying and potential solutions to keep children safe and the economic and health impacts of environmental racism and activism. Watch the show TONIGHT at 7 30 pm EST LIVE at http://www.basicblack.org or on channel 2 in Boston. You can also participate in a live chat at basicblack.org starting at 7: 20 pm.

What a great set of resources! Thanks for the ideas. Just wanted to put a call out for parents and teachers to consider being more green all year long– not just on Earth Day. We’ve got thousands of hands-on projects– from recycled crafts to creating a sock garden– and there are lots of other amazing ways to bring Green to life, all across the web. Here’s a link to our Earth Day ideas and to our grade-specific hands-on learning activities:http://www.education.com/seasonal/earth-day/http://www.education.com/activity/

I teach 5th graders and we’re talking about this article! Thank you for the information:)

I also had them search for eco friendly places to shop and 5 eco friendly products with labels to bring in. They found so many and it was exciting to hear and see. I’m now subscribed to a few blogs (like this one) and am shopping on a few sites. (like ecodirectstore.com)

I had them make smart goals for the year related to eco friendly topics.

A student had found this article and brought it to my attention.

I got all this info from just TALKING about going green to my students.

Love, love, love these ideas. I fondly remember planting a tree in honor of my late grandfather when I was a child, and it instilled in me a deep respect and appreciation for nature.

Today is the one-year anniversary of the Gulf oil spill disaster (which affected me profoundly). This offers a valuable teachable moment for students which relates directly to Earth Day. I’ve written a blog with tips on teaching children about both:

We are going to start by planting Columbine flowes ( in memory or the Columbine Shooting, as well as it’s our state flower). Then we are going to go outside out school and pick up trash. We are also going to make paper out of the paper from our recycle bin to use as new paper